Lookonline.com is the longest running fashion site on the Internet. Published since 1994.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Woops, They Did it Again!

For the second day in a row, WWD was scooped by The New York Times's Bill Cunningham. As www.fashionweekdaily.com noted yesterday, on Monday, January 3rd, WWD ran a pictorial called, 'Fur for All' which showed images of various socialites and celebs donning those ubiquitous small fur pieces (chubbies, capelets, boleros) during the recent round of holiday parties. It seemed to be practically the same idea (almost the same furs and in one instance, the very same person - Sally Albemarle) already recorded by Bill Cunningham in his Sunday, December 26th ‘On The Street’ column.

And today, there is a double page spread in WWD, 'Pink Chic' which literally follows by two days, Bill's Sunday, January 2nd column, ‘In the Pink’. I can’t wait to see what WWD features tomorrow.

Posted by Marilyn Kirschner

Speaking of the fashion world’s mental health issues…

I’m constantly amazed and struck by the completely contradictory and paradoxical nature of life, something that is especially obvious within the elitist world of fashion. But hey, let’s be honest. Don’t we all suffer from episodes of fashion schizophrenia? Most of us have more than just one fashion personality lurking inside; we are all asked to wear many ‘hats’ (business woman, executive, mom, wife, lover, daughter, friend, chef, party planner, shrink, etc.) and we all have many different sides, moods, needs, and creative outlets. Part of the job of fashion (and the fun, quite frankly) is to help us tap into these different sides, express ourselves, and dress for whoever we are, whoever we have to be, whoever we want to be.

Fashion schizophrenia is something that is actually nurtured and encouraged by an ever changing and contradictory fashion world, inhabited by designers who constantly go back and forth between often opposing fashion ideologies and philosophies- changing their minds and contradicting themselves from one season- or one moment- to the next.

Interestingly, (or should I say, paradoxically) one of the most CONSISTENT fashion designers of all time- the late and great Geoffrey Beene who passed away last year, was sometimes inconsistent and highly contradictory himself. This is something that did not go unnoticed by his heir apparent, Swedish born Einar Holiloekk, who is carrying on the label. (His first collection on his own will unveil during New York Fashion Week, at an informal presentation held in the company's west 57th street atelier).

Mr. Holiloekk confessed that Mr. Beene was often “a little bit all over the place”. “You couldn’t pin him down. He would always change. But perhaps, that was his strength - he was actually quite smart”. This was also easily explained by Einar, who observed that as a couture designer, Mr. Beene had to “address the different needs of his customer” as she went from day to night, from city to country, from work to play (and what could be more contradictory and schizophrenic than that?) Thus for every pant, there was a skirt and for everything long there was something short, for everything stiff and tailored, there was something soft, floating, and ethereal. For every outfit that could be used as a daily, no nonsense ‘uniform’, there was something extravagant and highly special.

And although pants figured prominently into Geoffrey’s repertoire (not to mention the fact that he made some of the most memorable jumpsuits around), he nonetheless went on record with his disdain for pants, preferring to see women’s legs. In fact, he was quoted as saying, “I believe by the 21st century women will be wearing pants and I honestly hope I won’t be there to see it.”

No comments:

Post a Comment

Featured Post

Costume Designers Are the Real West Coast Fashionistas The Audience CDG . . . To any normal living breathing fashion person, those ...

E-mailed Newsletter: Get every new post sent directly to your in box

Exclusive Sponsor

We’re pleased to welcome Talbots as the premiere exclusive sponsor of Wednesdays at Michael’s by Diane Clehane and salute the company’s mission to empower women in all aspects of their lives.
Through their relationships and carefully curated product lines, Talbots strives to give women the confidence to express their best selves in all aspects of their lives – every day. Fundamentally, Talbots believes that the better we do, the more we can do to positively impact the lives of women. Talbots is honored to partner with Dress for Success for a fourth year. Find out how you can help at talbots.com/dressforsuccess.

Support our site

Become a supporting member of our site for a one time contribution of only $59. Click
here and become a member. Our site has been up for 23 years and we depend upon the "kindness of strangers".

New York Market Reports

Marilyn Kirschner our editor-in-chief and former senior Market Editor of Harper's Bazaar for many years reports on the Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer New York collections for every season going back over 15 years. These kinds of reports are found no where else and are offered free to our readers. Additional past commentary was written for us by Bernadine Morris the former senior fashion writer of the New York Times.
Click here for the latest fall/winter 2018 report and links to all the other past reports..

About Me

Lookonline.com is the longest publishing online fashion site in the world. It was launched first as a BBS service in 1993 and has been on the Internet since December 1994. The DFR: Daily Fashion report is also the first fashion blog and was started in early 2002 as the site's main news page. Before launching the site, I was for many years a New York fashion photographer.